UNDER PRESSURE, DOLE RECONSIDERS ABORTION PLANK

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Published: July 13, 1996

WASHINGTON, July 12—
Bowing to threats by abortion opponents who said they would disrupt his convention in August, Bob Dole reversed himself today and said he would abide by their wishes concerning language in the Republican Party platform.

An agreement worked out today eliminates language from the abortion plank that expressed "tolerance" for those who favor abortion rights, and sprinkles it instead throughout the rest of the platform.

Mr. Dole, the likely Republican Presidential nominee, said last month that he wanted to attach "tolerance" language only to the abortion plank and said that decision was "not negotiable." But it outraged abortion opponents, who felt they were being singled out as troublemakers who were liabilities for the party.

Last month, they threatened open rebellion at the party's August convention in San Diego. One leading abortion opponent said today that the anti-abortion forces convinced the Dole campaign that they had enough delegates to hand Mr. Dole a humiliating defeat just as he was receiving maximum exposure at the convention, prompting the campaign into negotiations to eliminate that language from the abortion plank.

A Dole aide said the campaign hoped the new language would "definitely" foreclose the possibility of a floor fight at the convention.

"One of our most important strategic considerations is Bob Dole's being able to have the window open on him in San Diego so people can see who he is, what he's accomplished and what he stands for. If that picture is obscured, then we have not achieved all of our strategic goals."

The new proposal, reached with Representative Henry J. Hyde, one of the most respected abortion opponents in Congress and the chairman of the party's platform committee, calls for a "tolerance principle," which says "we urge respect for the sanctity of human life" and a plank devoted entirely to tolerance as a "virtue." The existing abortion plank, which unequivocally reaffirms the party's support for a "human-life amendment" to the Constitution, would not be affected.

Dole aides said they hoped the new approach would appeal to both sides in the explosive debate and close a chaotic chapter in Mr. Dole's campaign. They also hoped that it would advance their attempts to make Mr. Dole's candidacy more appealing to women, one of the groups with whom he fares the worst in public opinion surveys.

But while it seemed to satisfy some abortion opponents, and some supporters of abortion rights, it also disappointed others on both sides.

"We won a major victory because we had insisted that the tolerance statement not be attached to the pro-life plank as Senator Dole had earlier insisted it would be," said Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition. "By having it placed elsewhere, the pro-family movement achieved most of its objectives. It represents a rather significant change in Senator Dole's previously stated position, and that's good for us and good for the party."

He said he expected "some residual opposition, but not at the level we expected a week ago."

At the same time, Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum and a strong abortion opponent, said that while she was pleased the tolerance language was out of the abortion plank, she found the new tolerance plank "unacceptable."

The tolerance plank, which says "tolerance is a virtue," notes that Republicans have "deeply held and sometimes differing views on issues of personal conscience like abortion and capital punishment."

Mrs. Schlafly said that in reality, this still singles out abortion because the death penalty "is not controversial among Republicans."

And like her politicial ally, Angela Bay Buchanan, campaign chairman and sister of Patrick J. Buchanan, still a Republican Presidential candidate, Mrs. Schlafly said abortion was not a matter of "personal conscience."

"It is an inherent contradiction to declare in our platform that we simultaneously consider abortion a matter of 'personal conscience' and yet favor a constitutional amendment banning it," Ms. Buchanan said.

Both promised a fight in San Diego to alter the language of the tolerance plank or eliminate it. "I don't know if tolerance is always a virture -- we're not tolerant of burning down black churches," Mrs. Schlafly said. "This is an attempt to reconcile different parts of the party, but it needs some more reconciling."

The new approach also divided Republican supporters of abortion rights.

Gov. George E. Pataki of New York said he "would have preferred" that the tolerance language remain in the abortion plank, but said he supported the tolerance principle and the tolerance plank.

Similarly, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey said she still opposed the plank that supports the human life amendment, but she said "I can fully support" the new language on tolerance.

Representative Susan Molinari, a Republican from Staten Island who supports abortion rights, said, "I feel extremely comfortable knowing that Bob Dole tried to do this and got this far."

But Gov. William Weld of Massachusetts said the language on tolerance was "a throw-away line" that should be in the abortion plank. He said the new language was "transparently begrudging toward those who hold the pro-choice point of view," and said he planned to "continue the fight for a more inclusive party platform.

And it deeply disappointed others who saw Mr. Dole's earlier statement as a move to the center and an attempt to soften his image among female voters.

"Reaffirmation of an extreme human-life amendment is the wrong direction for our party," said Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine."

Ann Stone, director of Republicans for Choice Political Action Committee, called the new language "a disaster" and said the religious right "got everything they wanted."

Mr. Dole's campaign said the new language showed the candidate in his best light. "It shows he knows how to work through what various sides need to have, and it achieves his twin goals," said a top aide. "The first goal is to have a strong, clear statement of tolerance while also preserving our pro-life principles. The second goal is that it sends a message of inclusion to various people within the Republican Party."

The aide said that Mr. Dole wanted to "send a message to women that he was tolerant without compromising his principles. This is a case where we cheerfully admit we are trying to make both sides happy."